Bean Bush Royal Burgundy One Seed Chicago

I've made my seed selection for One Seed Chicago. The bean I will be growing will be Bean Bush 'Royal Burgundy' from Botanical Interests because I think the pods will make interesting garden photos. Botanical Interests, like Renee's Garden, is a sponsor of Chicago Spring fling.

I'm the kind of gardener that will buy seeds from wherever I can, but these two seed companies are making me consider buying exclusively from and endorsing smaller seed companies in my gardening endeavors. Their embrace and support of garden bloggers is enough to make me come to this realization and their seed packets are impressive enough to seal the deal.

In the post 'Edible Gardening in 2009' I provided pictures of the seed packets from Renee's Garden to illustrate just how much seed sowing information is part of the seed packaging. Botanical Interests also uses the seed packets to provide good information on the seeds they sell.

The front of the seed packet gives you information on sowing the seeds and how long it will be until you can harvest your crop. Flip the seed packet over and you can cut out a plant label that has been provided for you with all of the necessary information from how long it takes to emerge, how deep to plant the seeds, how to space them and thinning of seedlings.

Before you go opening the seed packet or cutting out the plant label that has been provided, you may want to carefully open the seed pack and look inside. The inside of the seed packet has been printed with all the seed starting tips and information on growing the mature plants and harvesting your crop. There is even an illustration of what the seedling looks like to help identify them and information on how you can use the crop in the kitchen.

I've been part of a few seed swaps and have read many gardening forums and it seems to me seed suppliers usually get blamed for selling "bad seeds" when in reality the reason the seed sowing attempt failed was because of gardener error. Even green thumbs sometimes need a few tips, especially with seeds they've never grown before. But more importantly, newbie gardeners and experienced gardeners new to growing from seed need the information the seed packets from Renee & Botanical Interests provide. They leave little room to blame the seed source if seeds don't germinate or the plants don't do well.

It is also a very clever marketing because unless you're a seed nerd seed packets get tossed; but these seed packets are designed to be more than gardening ephemera. These seed packets are for keeping and are intended to be used as reference material. The next time you're looking to buy seeds for your garden you're likely to find the empty packet in your seed bin or desk drawer and remember the success you had with these companies and order from them again. They also make garden geeks like myself, who feel like the large seed companies should provide more information on seed packets, write posts fawning over these well designed seed packets.

I'm probably not the only hobby gardener that has ever wanted to start his or her own seed company and I'll probably not be the last. If that dream ever comes to fruition I'll have inspiration from two seed companies on how to sell seeds- the right way.

If you're new to gardening or starting seeds you may find these previous posts of mine useful.

Seed Collars
Paper Tube Seed Pot Holders
Homemade Seed Pots
Ghetto Greenhouse
Sandwich Bag Seed Starter
Direct Sowing In The Garden
One Seed Chicago 2009-
Edible Gardening in 2009

If you need gardening information try Google for Gardeners. It is the a custom Google search engine where I hand-pick only the best gardening websites for inclusion. It isn't for shopping but for finding information about gardening.